1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to peptide and nucleic acid compositions. More particularly, it concerns peptide and nucleic acid sequences which may serve to target host and/or foreign proteins to a membrane of a host cell. Additionally, the invention concerns methods of using the peptide and nucleic acid sequences.
2. Description of Related Art
Naturally occurring insect baculoviruses have received considerable attention for their potential to be used as non-chemical, environmentally safe control agents for insect pests. They infect only arthropods, and each virus strain infects only one or a limited number of species. Many of the virus hosts are commercially important agricultural insect pests. Examples include infestation of cotton, sorghum and corn by the bollworm/budworm complex, and infestation of garden crops by the cabbage looper and tomato hornworm. As important, beneficial insects that are natural predators of insect pests are not hosts for baculoviruses. Baculovirus AcMNPV has undergone five controlled release trials and these trials indicate that when the virus is genetically modified by deletion of a single gene, it does not persist in the environment (Cory and Bishop, 1995). Thus, genetically engineered baculoviruses can be used safely as a "one pass" insecticide that will kill the insect pest and not persist in the environment.
The host range of insect baculoviruses has been extensively studied and no evidence of infection or pathogenic responses have been identified in non-host insects, plants, vertebrates and man (Groner, 1986). This feature may make baculoviruses as ideal agent to be modified and used for the delivery of drugs, genes, or therapeutics.
The occlusion derived virus (ODV) is the primary infectious agent to the insect host. The ODV envelope fuses with the plasma membrane of the gut cell, thus releasing the nucleocapsid and viral DNA into the cell (Kawanishi et al., 1972). In this process, viral envelope proteins are incorporated into the gut cell plasma membrane. Elucidation of the mechanism by which virus expressed genes are targeted to the viral envelope would represent a significant advance in the art.
Directed insertion of proteins into cellular membranes would have a number of therapeutic, diagnostic and insecticidal applications. A method leading to the insertion of heterologous proteins not normally associated with membranes into the membranes of a cell would thus be a tremendous benefit to the art.